London Pub Tour 14 - Waterloo: Waterloo Tap, The White Hart, The King's Arms, The Windmill Tavern and The Beer House

Since my last venture out between the Christmas and New Year period was disappointing, I opted to go out again once people were back at work on the Thursday just before New Year's. I kept it simple and headed to Waterloo and started at a new-ish venue, the Waterloo Tap (SE1 7ES).

The Waterloo tap was open in March 2016 by the owners of the Euston Tap (and the Bloomsbury Lanes) in a disused railway arch. The arch was previously not used, but Network Rail have been bringing a lot of railway arches back into use because of the money that can be earnt through rentals. The Waterloo tap is on the major pedestrian thoroughfare between South Bank and Waterloo station. The outside is simply glass through which you can see out the other side, as the venue isn't that large. Upon walking in the bar is to your left with taps on the wall behind the bar number from 1 through to 27 (I think). Above head height behind the bar are the chalk boards showing what each of those taps are serving.

Whenever you walk into a place like Taps or Craft you will inevitably discover that you've never had half these beers before, and some you never even knew about. This does then make it had to choose what will be your poison, so rather than use a complicated method of working out which might be a rare brew or rare for London, you just randomly find a percentage and go with it, which is how I ended up with a pint of Gun Smoked by Four Pure Brewing. It did indeed live up to it's name and be smokey. It was also quite dark and didn't let any light through. At 4.7% it was a solid drink to start with considering this was going to be a bit of a heavy night. I kept it Bermondsey based and choose a pint of 21|03 by Brew by Numbers. Now I didn't actually choose this one, but the bar man pulled two of these by accident so rather than waste beer I took it. This was higher at 5.2% and was a cloudy, bitter, citrus beer but nonetheless went down easily.

As you would expect from a railway arch, the roof of the pub is an arch. When looking at the back window, you don't get a view of anything, but you can see some of their used key-kegs and see what you missed out on. The toilets for the pub are on this back wall, and strangely the men's toilet has a lock for the customer to close the door even though it is a urinal inside. The Tap wasn't that busy but then this was an early start and no doubt it would get busy later. I left the Tap and walked on to the White Hart (SE1 8TJ) which is in the back streets of Waterloo but still a very popular pub.

The White Hart stands proudly and bright on this quiet street corner. Upon walking in through the front door you are facing straight on to the smaller side of the bar, where a display or some lagers and all the cask ales are displayed. On the left are tables running along the bar, and on the right is the longest side of the bar with more seating all the way down. There are extra beers available on the two other sides of the bar, though at first I wasn't aware of this so surveyed the ales and chose a pint of Cornish Trawler by Skinners. The beer felt very dry on the mouth and wasn't as refreshing as I expected. This put was certainly busier than the Tap, with all the seats taken, but only a few were standing at the further reaches of the bar, which is where I headed. I then noticed that alongside the London Lager, Camden Pale, Becks and Carling they also offered Franzisknner, Veltins, Meantime Pacific Red and Stigel. There was also a very good selection of Begian beers including the amazing Delirium. Considering I didn't want to jump straight to 9 or 10% I thought I'd give the Steigel a go, as I've never had that in the UK. But upon looking at the pump clip it turned out this wasn't Steigel this was Steigel Pilnser (They had used Stigel badge and just added a tape saying Pilsner), which I certainly wasn't going to say no to. I only ordered a half of the Stigel Pilsner (Pils) and really enjoyed it. Some wonderful raisin hints came through whilst drinking and I wished I had seen this prior to ordering the Skinners, The White Hart was now getting quite busy with the after work and pre-theatre crowd so I moved on to another busy back street Waterloo pub, The King's Arms (SE1 8TB).

This King's Arms is a wonderful looking pub on the outside that fits in with the surroundings. If you didn't know about it, you might just miss the place. The pub has quite a few doors and is separated into Lounge and Saloon. I couldn't honestly tell you which side I walked into as the pub was packed on both sides, so I just selected the one with the easiest access to the bar. Sadly the area of the bar I walked up to only had the more standard lagers you would expect to see. I enquired about the ale selection but turns out there are around 9 pumps so I opted for the easiest one to remember which was Ale of Kings which turned out to be made by Sharp's. Also on tap was Hark by Thornbridge, Adnams Bitter, Dark Star Pale Ale and Calif-oregon Amber. The Sharp's was a good choice at £4.50 being nice and crisp and the usual standard expected.

The side of the bar I was in started to empty out a little which gave me the chance to move around and look at the craft kegs on offer. There was Nouvelle Saison, Queen of Diamonds, Neck Oil and N 7.7. I was too tempted by the N 7.7 and the few I'd tucked away prior to this obviously didn't help my decision making, so I went and ordered a half. The N 7.7 (v1.0) 2016 by Hammerton Brewery was, as you've guessed, 7.7% ABV. A half pint cost £2.90 and this was a Double IPA with a massive hop and citrus punch. Whilst 'sipping' my 7.7% half pinter I had a chance for a better look round the pub. There was a dinning area in the rear that was quite empty, and the opposite side of the pub was straight and long, but felt like it held less than the area I'd been in. I also had a look in the fridges underneath and there were quite a few craft cans and bottles tucked away in there. I do keep saying I should visit this pub more, and I think I will, but perhaps at a less busy time so I can sit and enjoy it more.

It was next onwards to The Windmill Tavern (SE1 8LW) which was only a minute or two walk away, but takes you back out onto a high street. The Windmill Tavern is actually owned by the same company that owns the King's Arms however, the two pubs really couldn't feel any different. Whereas the King's Arms offered a varying selection of standard keg and ales, alongside a good selection of guest beers, the Windmill's offering was more tied to Fuller's with Montana Red, Frontier and Fullers IPA on Keg and on cask were Bengal Lancer, London Pride and Doombar. The pub also didn't have the more cosy feel of the King's Arms, it felt more a spit and saw dust style pub.

Pump clips facing inwards

The entrance to the pub was on a side stairway which leads you into the back bar. You can then walk through a door opening to reach the front bar which mainly consisted of short tables with short stools. To be honest I'm not sure if there was another entrance, but with my quick look in the front bar I didn't notice one. The rear bar was a long connected sofa on the back wall, with some tables. The bar separates the two areas but is very open allowing you to easily see the other side and out the front windows, along with letting the noise flow through. The pub wasn't packed as there remained seating, though I wouldn't say it wasn't busy. The pub serves Thai food which explained the smell. The strangest thing about the Windmill is the position of the ales. The pubs are attached against the partition between the two bars, with the pump clips facing inwards, so they're only visible from the opposite bar. I ended up selecting the Fullers IPA, which was my second time trying the beer, and I must admit it hadn't improved on second tasting.

After the disappointing pint at the Windmill I made my way back to Waterloo station and down the stairs from the platform to the Beer House (SE1 7LY). I had come to assume the Beer House pubs were owned by Greene King as all the ales they ever stock are Greene King, but when typing up this blog I learned they're in fact owned by a company called SSP. The Beer House offers a selection of standard and premium lagers, and it actually quite a good selection for a station pub compared to what is offered by the other station pubs Sloe Bar. I opted for a pint of Erdinger Weissbrau which comes in a 5.3%. The beer came in a beautiful pint glass which only made this final pint all the more better.

The Beer House itself was it's regularly self, not too busy, but lucky if you get a seat, which I managed to do. The pub has no natural light as its underground and the train screens were not working, which also meant, no phone signal. Thankfully the free WiFi was working which enabled me to check my train times. As a station pub in London this isn't a bad location to sit out any delays or have a swift half whilst waiting for your train. I just about managed to finish my very filling pint of Erdinger Weissbrau, before heading off to catch my train.

On reflection The Taps lived up to the expectation from it's bigger brother in Euston and provided a large selection of beers. But prior to the Taps there has been many other venues offering a varying selection of lagers and beers and this is something the White Hart and the King's Arms do well, and can be seen by the number of people always at these venues. The Windmill was disappointing mainly due to how well the King's Arms has been run by the same company, though I understand appealing to different clientele. And as a station pub in London, the Beer House this isn't a bad location to sit out any delays or have a swift half whilst waiting for your train.